British People Are Spending Less Time On Social Media

The proportion of our online time devoted to social networking has slipped, according to this “internet clock”, produced by analytics company Experian. In 2012 the UK spent 37 billion hours online, but if all that time was distilled into a single hour, this is how it would look.

The graph demonstrates that, in 2012, UK internet users spent 22% of their time on social (or thirteen minutes if every hour spent online), down from 25% in 2011. Meanwhile, time spent on entertainment - a category that includes YouTube and iPlayer - and news was slightly up.

The data were gathered using an analytics tool that monitors the online activity of 25 million users worldwide. Experian’s report keys into a broader trend. Last week, BuzzFeed highlighted a study that suggested teens were abandoning social networks.